Man admits grooming girls on net

A man has pleaded guilty to a series of offences relating to the grooming on the internet of young girls across the UK, police said.

Paul Etheridge, a 24-year-old carpenter from Halesworth, Suffolk, was caught with more than 200 pictures of girls aged 13 to 15 on his mobile phone.

Detectives said he had enticed the youngsters to send indecent images of themselves, often in exchange for mobile top-up vouchers.

Etheridge was caught after a 13-year-old girl from Reigate, Surrey, alerted police that she had been propositioned online by a man who wanted her to make and send indecent photographs using her mobile phone camera in July last year.

Surrey Police’s Paedophile On-Line Investigation Team was quickly able to trace Etheridge and he was arrested at his home on August 9.

Analysis of his computers and mobile phone revealed he had been in contact with hundreds of girls under 16 in areas across the country including Belfast, Lancashire, Norwich, London and Surrey. Thousands of indecent images, many from web cameras, were also found on his computer.

Etheridge pleaded guilty to 26 offences when he appeared at Guildford Crown Court and a further seven remain on file.

They include possession of indecent images and inciting the production of indecent images, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and, in the most serious case, engaging in penetrative sexual activity with a 15-year-old girl from London.

Detectives had managed to track down many of his victims through Etheridge’s computer and phone records.